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With the anime having now started, I thought it a good time to create a game thread where those of us who have played the game (either on PC or PSP) can discuss the source material more freely, and also make observations about the anime based on the game.

Suffice it to say, if you have not played the game (or are not interested in being spoiled on the game's contents), this is not a thread for you.

I guess I'll lead off with a few observations based on the opening of the anime compared to the game:

Spoiler for Anime Opening Episode/game endings:

I think the anime had strong hints that they'll do some parts of the stories of multiple heroines, along with making a suggestion about the ending.

As hyl hinted in the anime thread, which I had to edit out due to the spoiler policy, Miu's mother appears briefly in the OP (in the quick side-character shots), and she only appears in the game in Miu's route.

The "Sakuno getting lost" scene features the same location that comes back as that important flashback in Sakuno's route, which puts more emphasis on her "if I get lost you'll find me" line.

The opening narration is actually the ending narration from Airi's route, along with the "two pairs of footsteps in snow". This is the strongest hint about the probable ending (which most gamers would have expected). They did have all five heroines narrate part of it, although Airi reads the last bit while the two pairs of footprints are shown.

Also, as an unrelated non-spoiler observation, the change to have Pannya lead Sakuno away from her waiting location (beyond giving a reason why her photo of herself wouldn't work -- which itself was a character point) and run by Hayata and his finacée were (more or less) so that, when Miu is introduced, they can say "I think I've seen that pet before" to contrast with Shingo's staring at Miu and give them a reason to not notice Shingo's stare. A minor but well-used plot change.

Also, probably goes without saying, but some of the backgrounds used in the anime look almost identical to those in the game. In particular, some of the school hallways almost look like they just used the CG rather than re-drawing it.

Aye, the anime OP/narration certainly gave us some hints, and I would say the 'final' one you mentioned being an elephant sized one

Spoiler for anime ep1/musings:

I believe that Airi being the likely candidate for whose (full) route they might be going for shouldn't be a surprise. Always seemed like the most likely choice, and if the "footsteps in snow" narration segment is any indication, a glimpse from the future that they plan on bringing the story to, we have hopes of the anime actually offering closure on the relationship front.

I was actually surprised they so blatantly (from the perspective of a VN reader anyway) showcased the ending narration of Airi's route, along with the footsteps (though leaving the two people out themselves) - this scene and CG is one of the two that have remained stuck in my memory from the game. (The other being Miu in her catgirl attire handing out fliers ). So ... yeah, allowing myself to be cautiously optimistic about them actually heading for this closure, if they were bold enough to showcase it.

I keep wondering how they are going to integrate Miu's story though - as you noted, the OP contains a shot of Miu's mother, who only comes up when Shingo goes to visit her house, which suggests a lot of involvement with Miu. I am not sure how that is going to stitch together with Airi's main-route though, as Shingo can't be hanging around at Miu's clubroom and Airi's apartment at the same time.

Well, he can always start at Miu's clubroom and move on to Airi when on better terms with her, which I expect the anime to do, but my concern is that this leaves Miu and Sana somewhat washed up. Shingo's and Miu's developing feelings for each other were a substantial part of her route after all, and more importantly - the main driving force behind Sana's excellent character development. As much as I liked Miu's route, I think the real treat of it was watching Sana behind the scenes - as she went from a man-hater (kinda) to someone who could accept them, to her own slowly developing feelings for Shingo.

Feelings she could never express and had to bottle up, both because of her realizing she doesn't stand a chance with his attention focused on Miu, and because doing so would have hurt Miu in turn, something she wouldn't do to her friend. I developed a lot of respect for Sana over the course of Miu's route, that's for sure.

But here comes the problem - Shingo and Miu probably won't get much on the romance front, in turn Sana won't get either, especially when Shingo starts hanging out at Airi's apartment, and thus the meatier part of Miu's route is gone, along with much of Sana's depth.

I guess what I am trying to say is, I am afraid that Miu and Sana are likely to be delegated to side-roles, more than anyone else, if Shingo focuses on Airi. And I would hate to see that happen, as I love both of their characters. Sakuno can always play an important part in Shingo's life, and Ange's antics can get away being largely unaffected either, but I feel like Miu's and Sana's potential developments largely depend on the time Shingo gets to spend with both of them in said clubroom. Time which I fear will be cut short with Airi as the focus.

Though perhaps I am crying prematurely, wouldn't be the first time I am wrong The opening narration gives me hope we are heading for a definite closure, and if Miu's route has to be sacrificed in order to get there, so be it. Still, here's hoping they find a way to integrate the full depth of her story regardless. *twiddles thumbs nervously*.

Aye, the anime OP/narration certainly gave us some hints, and I would say the 'final' one you mentioned being an elephant sized one

Spoiler:

Not necessarily, the opening narration of the anime is a shortened version of the opening narration of the game to explain why the color of love is white.
Airi's ending has a similar talk about colors, but it's more different than the opening narration of the game. But because Airi is considered to be the main heroine, it was fitting that she had to repeat an altered version of the opening narration to end the story (just like the anime version of Toradora (haven't read the novels, so i don't know if it also had that narration as an ending) and some other VN).

Adding Amaha Yuiko in the opening made me think that they will be using her to give improve Miu's character development , but i think they will be using her differently than the VN. The only way how they could add side characters who only show up in 1 story is to alter the story a little, so that shingo will probably meet her without shifting the story to Miu's route.
Eventhough i haven't finished Ange's story because i don't like her as a love interest for the main ( but she was an excellent side character to make the other story funnier), the stories of the other 3 main heroine's of the original game and the 2 from the game don't seem to overlap at all, very likely because the stories in the original game were written by 3 people.

I don't think we will be seeing anything from Sana's story from the psp game, because it's really different from the other stories (it branches of from Miu's stpry if made slightly different choice) and it also introduces a new side character. I think Sana will be used as a support character for Miu like the original game. And to be honest, i liked Sana better in the Miu story, than in her own story. One other reason why i think that they will be not using anything from Sana's story is that we don't see anything of the 6th character from the psp game: Onomiya Yutsuki.

My guess is that they be going for the Airi or Sakuno route, while adding little bits from the other 2 characters.

edit:

Quote:

Originally Posted by relentlessflame

Spoiler for Anime Opening Episode/game endings:

[*]Sana's prominence in the anime also suggests elements of Miu's route are likely (though I'm doubtful they'll delve into Sana's PSP route).[*]The "Sakuno getting lost" scene features the same location that comes back as that important flashback in Sakuno's route, which puts more emphasis on her "if I get lost you'll find me" line.[*]The opening narration is actually the ending narration from Airi's route, along with the "two pairs of footsteps in snow". This is the strongest hint about the probable ending (which most gamers would have expected). They did have all five heroines narrate part of it, although Airi reads the last bit while the two pairs of footprints are shown.[/list]

Spoiler:

[*]Sana is not more prominently shown in the anime yet than the game , besides the Pannya scene. But that was used to show us all of the heroines. Sana being there next to Machi sensei, was pretty indentical as in the game.
But her showing up in the opening is not a suprise, seeing that she was voted to be the most popular character in the 2nd Mashiro Iro poll from quite a while ago and thanks to her huge fanbase she got her own story when the psp version was made.
[*]I agree with you. I think the anime probably intentionally made the first 10 minutes slower and more stretched than the original scene, to emphasize on Sakuno story a little.
[*] i explained my opinion on that as a reponse to Skyfall's post

Not necessarily, the opening narration of the anime is a shortened version of the opening narration of the game to explain why the color of love is white.
Airi's ending has a similar talk about colors, but it's more different than the opening narration of the game. But because Airi is considered to be the main heroine, it was fitting that she had to repeat an altered version of the opening narration to end the story (just like the anime version of Toradora (haven't read the novels, so i don't know if it also had that narration as an ending) and some other VN).

Spoiler for Episode 1 & Game:

I think it's the combination of the narration with the visual (clearly from Airi's ending) that connects the two points. Sure it could just be random and those footprints could be anyone, but game players will recognize that scene and connect it to Airi's ending (even if the text is an adaptation of the opening narration, which was echoed in Airi's ending). As with Toradora, I think it's very strong foreshadowing.

Quote:

Originally Posted by hyl

Spoiler:

Adding Amaha Yuiko in the opening made me think that they will be using her to give improve Miu's character development , but i think they will be using her differently than the VN. The only way how they could add side characters who only show up in 1 story is to alter the story a little, so that shingo will probably meet her without shifting the story to Miu's route.
Eventhough i haven't finished Ange's story because i don't like her as a love interest for the main ( but she was an excellent side character to make the other story funnier), the stories of the other 3 main heroine's of the original game and the 2 from the game don't seem to overlap at all, very likely because the stories in the original game were written by 3 people.

Spoiler:

Well, clearly there'll have to be some re-writing involved for them to include elements from all the routes, because you're right that the routes don't overlap much. Beyond just the different writers, most of the routes are heavily romance-dependent, so they can only be merged up to a certain point without being rewritten. That being said, I really can't imagine them going for Sakuno's route without a massive re-write, as despite Sakuno's character prominence, her route isn't very connected to the main theme of the work or that opening narration. (It would actually annoy me somewhat if they did Sakuno's route given this opening; it'd be a bit like a certain other eroge adaptation with similar original character designs which was heavily modified from the original PC game.) So anyway, since I'm barring total rewrites for the moment (the first episode was fairly faithful after all), I can only go with either Airi or Miu, and I think most bets are on Airi. I think Sakuno will have one episode later where the go into the first part of her route (with the flashback, to tie back to the opening episode), and then sort of reset to the status quo. Wouldn't surprise me if that happens just before the Airi ending.

Of course I could be totally off, and some of the content could be shifted up and down a bit, but it was fun to sort of think it through.

Quote:

Originally Posted by hyl

Spoiler:

Sana is not more prominently shown in the anime yet than the game , besides the Pannya scene. But that was used to show us all of the heroines. Sana being there next to Machi sensei, was pretty indentical as in the game.
But her showing up in the opening is not a suprise, seeing that she was voted to be the most popular character in the 2nd Mashiro Iro poll from quite a while ago and thanks to her huge fanbase she got her own story when the psp version was made.

Spoiler:

Yes, but the prominence in the OP alone pretty much guarantees that she'll have a bigger role than the other side-characters, and in the game that only happened in Miu's route. At the very least, I think they'll have her show up in more places as she did in the PSP game, rather than it just being the four heroines at certain points.

And as an aside...

Quote:

Originally Posted by hyl

Spoiler:

And to be honest, i liked Sana better in the Miu story, than in her own story

Spoiler:

Well, I guess I'd say that Sana's route was a good complement to the original route. I was a Sana fan in the original game, so I was just glad to see her get a happy ending. I thought that the PSP game did a really good job of it and it was worth my while, but I suppose I wouldn't have felt so strongly about it if it weren't for the long wait between PC game and the PSP game. As a route for the anime it doesn't work because it depends a lot on being familiar with Miu's route. I'd say it's really a route for people who played the original game already. As far as the "canon endings" of the game go, it's a good "bonus" true ending, since it connects nicely to a lot of other plot points in the game.

Well, I guess I'd say that Sana's route was a good complement to the original route. I was a Sana fan in the original game, so I was just glad to see her get a happy ending. I thought that the PSP game did a really good job of it and it was worth my while, but I suppose I wouldn't have felt so strongly about it if it weren't for the long wait between PC game and the PSP game. As a route for the anime it doesn't work because it depends a lot on being familiar with Miu's route. I'd say it's really a route for people who played the original game already. As far as the "canon endings" of the game go, it's a good "bonus" true ending, since it connects nicely to a lot of other plot points in the game.

Spoiler:

My reason for liking Sana more in the Miu story was probably because her character felt stronger due to her conflicting emotions and how she dealt with it. So i was actually hoping that her story in the Psp version was a continuation of that, rather than the fluffy story about her and little brother

My reason for liking Sana more in the Miu story was probably because her character felt stronger due to her conflicting emotions and how she dealt with it. So i was actually hoping that her story in the Psp version was a continuation of that, rather than the fluffy story about her and little brother

Spoiler for PSP game, Sana's route...:

I was actually glad that Sana's route took an original path rather than just branching off the original ending. Rather than "conflicting emotions" as in Miu's route, this really served to develop Sana's character and help the reader to understand the pretty-major self-esteem issues she has, related to the relationship with her brother, the admiration/jealousy she feels towards Miu, and how all that impacts her developing relationship with Shingo. While I liked the role Sana played in Miu's route (the thing with the two cats and her denied feelings was really well-done and heart-rending), I felt that I really understood her better in her own route, so I think the two complement each other nicely. Plus deredere Sana was waaayyy too cute. But yeah... I guess I can see how you might have preference for the former rather than the latter.

It's not that i disliked Sana's story, but i had different expectations seeing what happened in Miu's story in the original game.

What i really liked in Sana's story was the christmas scene, but the biggest problem was that i don't like her little brother. He is in my opinion the most annoying side character out of every story. But I guess he is acting that way , because he is just a child.

If i have to pick my favorite heroines from all the games, then Yutsuki (that "Wow") and Sana and Miu are my top 3 favorites.

The anime is still faithfull to the game but eventhough the pacing is better, it's still a bit on the slow side. We have only passed 6th of october in 2 episodes (ep 1 was 30th september and 1st october, while this episode was just 2nd and a combination of 5th and 6th of october), while the stories can go on till christmas or longer depending on the heroine.

I typed combination of 5th and 6th october, because the scene where the classes are choosing their class reps happens slightly earlier than in the game, but it's probably done to make it coincide with end the episode. A minor change, that doesn't effect anything plotwise because in the previews we still get to see the the scene where Miu and Sakuno went to Shingo's class during lunchbreak, so nothing significantly get skipped.

The introducing of Miu is shortened (it's still an anime, not a VN), but still pretty much the same.

This episode reminded me that Sana is still acting nice and wellmannered towards everyone including boys by using the innocent tone in her voice. The anime doesn't even hint that Sana is hiding that she acting it, seeing that she dislikes men, unlike the game that she sometimes uses her her angered or annoyed face after talking to Shingo.

This episode reminded me that Sana is still acting nice and wellmannered towards everyone including boys by using the innocent tone in her voice. The anime doesn't even hint that Sana is hiding that she acting it, seeing that she dislikes men, unlike the game that she sometimes uses her her angered or annoyed face after talking to Shingo.

Spoiler for Episode 2 anime/game comparison:

Yeah, I always thought this didn't really come out in a major way until she sees Shingo getting close to Miu, and then it's like a switch is triggered, so perhaps they're just trying to emphasize that "switch" and Sana's possessive side (of Miu). All in all, though, I do agree that they seem to be making her a tad more sympathetic in these early episodes than I had remembered, especially with her approaching them during gym class -- she was acting way too cutely in this scene! As you say, I suspect they'll bring her back into alignment next episode.

All in all, I agree with your conclusion -- they did rework some scenes and the sequencing a bit, but it still generally conveys the same sense as the game, and they haven't really skipped or changed anything important... yet. Next episode is looking good for my prediction, though I don't know if he'll agree to join the Pets Club that soon. We'll see... Since they like to resequence things for quasi-cliffhangers, is it possible they could go all the way to the grocery store for the end of episode 3, or is that too odd a stopping point?

It's possible that episode 3 can end at the grocery store/ supermarket, because that's the next big plot point in game and the title of the next episode also suggests that's the focus is about Airi (something like getting annoyed and nervously heart beating).
But before the supermarket scene in the game, there were events that developed the other 3 heroine's a little and at the end of that scene you picked the right answer, in order to go that heroine's route later on (the other criteria was choosing that girl to go with at the supermarket). Unless they rushed or delay the scenes of Sakuna, Ange and Miu, i don't think we will see the supermarket scene yet

The pacing of this episode has increased by alot. Relentflessflame guessed it right that this episode ended with the supermarket scene with Airi.
This episode also stays fairly faithfull to the game ,but because of the rapid pacing that tries to finish the main route, we did up skipping some story about the rest of the characters (i mean Sakuno and Ange, I am expecting to see more of Sana when we get to Miu's story).
The way how they added Miu in this episode (he ended up visiting her unofficial club after finishing his duties as class rep), while still keeping the focus on the main route is a nice touch.
Speaking about Miu, in the next episode preview we get to see Miu in her part time job outfit, which means that we get to see more of Miu's story (i hope).

Minor thing i noticed, the laptops they are using in the anime are Myaio, while the game had Nyaio laptops

Spoiler for edit more about episode 3:

Also the anime did not suggest that Airi was hiding the way how she lives, when thr whole group went together home.

The pacing of this episode has increased by alot. Relentflessflame guessed it right that this episode ended with the supermarket scene with Airi.
This episode also stays fairly faithfull to the game ,but because of the rapid pacing that tries to finish the main route, we did up skipping some story about the rest of the characters (i mean Sakuno and Ange, I am expecting to see more of Sana when we get to Miu's story).
The way how they added Miu in this episode (he ended up visiting her club after finishing his duties as class rep), while still keeping the focus on the main route iss a nice touch.
Speaking about Miu, in the next episode preview we get to see Miu in her part time job outfit, which means that we get to see more of Miu's story (i hope).

Minor thing i noticed, the laptops they are using in the anime are Myaio, while the game had Nyaio laptops

Spoiler for Episode 3 comparison:

Yup, so far so good on my prediction. They even laid the foundation for Miu's club as I expected, even if they left it dangling for now. They fact that it's dangling, plus the Miu scene in the preview, means that I'm pretty confident we'll get the "save the club" mini-arc next (Miu/Sana routes). The opening scene was a really nice bit with Sakuno as well.

I mentioned this in the anime thread, but I seriously laughed when they did the "who will you shop with" scene and then conveniently cut to after the decision without showing us what happened. Any game player will see what's going on there.

So far, I can't see many game players with realistic expectations complaining about this adaptation. It's fairly faithful to the game in both content and "tone", while making some understandable adjustments to account for time that don't seriously hurt the character development (though in the end, obviously, some character development will be cut).

At first i didn't thought of it, untill i read relentlessflame post in the anime section. I now think the anime intentionally skipped the parts that i was talking earlier.

The anime skipped the part where Shingo interacted with the other girls individually (Sakuno, Ange , Miu and in the psp game also Yutuski), the way how he answered these girls effected the story whom he is going for. The anime also skipped whom he went with at the supermarket (which is the 2nd criteria for choosing the main heroine.) By skipping both parts the anime is making sure that the people who played the game don't know which main heroine's story he is taking.

Spoiler for date:

game wise we are now from 5th/6th of october (episode 2) to the end of 16th of october (end of episode 3)

Spoiler for more things i noticed after rewatching:

This episode is much more faithfull to the story in the game than i initially thought. They kept almost everything both the things that had some importance like Airi not liking Pannya, Sakuno's introduction to the rest of group and of course as mentioned by relentlessflame the relation between Sana and Miu and the less relevant but nice touches like Sakuno's habbit of reading books in Shingo's room. Most importantly, the anime did a very good job of expressing how Airi is feeling in this episode.
The anime is also intentionally having cliffhangers every episode .

Which reminds me that I guess I should try to figure out what next week's cliffhanger may be, given that they do seem to have one every week. In thinking about it, I think I'm going to go with Shingo agreeing to join Miu's club despite Sana's loud objections. That would basically serve as a transition point into the next arc. Then the cliffhanger in episode 5 would be that they're going to shut down the club, and Episode 6 would focus on the resolution. Because I had pegged Episode 7 as a one-off, that's sort of a wildcard. I guess we'll see...

well in the game, the next events are that the group decided to study together at Airi's place for the upcoming test and this scene

Spoiler for anime predictions:

lol - yes, I think the reaction in the anime threads is going to be epic. Airi will finally calm down and no longer be seen as such a "tsundere", but Sana will step up to the plate to take her place. In fact, Airi was always more of a "false tsundere" in my mind, since it was mostly caused by her pride and fear of being exposed (and the fact that Shingo made her vulnerable to that because he had already seen her honest side). Sana, on the other hand, is the story's real tsundere, I think. That she's hid it for this long is basically because he hasn't tripped the switch yet. (The anime adaptation has also kept it even more hidden than the game so far. So if they end the episode with a "sudden" scene like that screenshot, it'd be a good cliffhanger.)

The PSP game has two new heroines: Sana (who you see in the anime) and Yutsuki (who is not in the anime, but exclusive to the PSP game). I don't think there's a "secret" heroine, though.

Edit: Wanted to comment on this post from the anime thread:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skyfall

(There sure was a lot of focus on her 'grocery bag' throughout the ep).

Spoiler for Anime Episode 3:

Good job to Shingo Ushiro (the episode director/storyboarder, and director of D.C.IF and Campanella among others) and also the writers on that one. Now that's a well-done hint: it's right in your face all the time, but what it implies is really subtle and easy to miss. Even I who know what's going on missed it. It's her lunch bag. She leaves the class every day to eat, so some people probably assume that she's buying her lunch (like most rich kids would). But after the "Pannya's attack" scene you see her grab her bag and leave the class for lunch. The next day you see as she's walking back to class during lunch that she's holding that bag again. And it's a bag she brings with her every day to school. We know from the game that the "contents" of said lunch bag are going to be at issue next week, which is the real reason why she always leaves the classroom every day to eat.

I was wondering myself why they kept dwelling on that bag but was too clueless to put two and two together until you mentioned it. It's a major hint that this "ojou-sama" is not all she's presenting herself to be, which is cemented definitively at the end.

Good job to Shingo Ushiro (the episode director/storyboarder, and director of D.C.IF and Campanella among others) and also the writers on that one. Now that's a well-done hint: it's right in your face all the time, but what it implies is really subtle and easy to miss. Even I who know what's going on missed it. It's her lunch bag. She leaves the class every day to eat, so some people probably assume that she's buying her lunch (like most rich kids would). But after the "Pannya's attack" scene you see her grab her bag and leave the class for lunch. The next day you see as she's walking back to class during lunch that she's holding that bag again. And it's a bag she brings with her every day to school. We know from the game that the "contents" of said lunch bag are going to be at issue next week, which is the real reason why she always leaves the classroom every day to eat.

I was wondering myself why they kept dwelling on that bag but was too clueless to put two and two together until you mentioned it. It's a major hint that this "ojou-sama" is not all she's presenting herself to be, which is cemented definitively at the end.

Spoiler for reply, anime ep 3:

Knowing about Airi's situation, the bag really stood out for me - they were putting a fair deal of focus on it, several scenes that lasted a few seconds each, literally showing nothing but the bag. I was honestly expecting for someone in the anime thread to ask "what's with the bag", since I'd assume one would find such unusual camera focus to be suspicious. Though perhaps it's the knowledge of what it implies that made it stand out, so it's a bit hard to judge how many questions, if any, it would raise for an anime only watcher. The woes of a VN player!

In the end i guess it's one of those "it's a spoiler only if you know what it means" cases. There haven't been any hints of Airi's financial situation after all, and even the supermarket scene, with Airi worrying about how to get the biggest discounts possible, hasn't raised any questions. I guess people are likely to assume it's just a quirk of hers, a "perfect housewife"/perfectionist tendency, and not necessarily link it to her being poor.

Further masked by the aspect that Miu seemed impressed/excited about the cheap prices as well (so obviously an acceptable interest from a lady from said school), and that Airi leaving classroom will likely be attributed to her not wanting to eat together with everyone because boys/Shingo are/is there ... yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if people don't pick it up just yet. The show has been dropping hints indeed, but they are easy to misinterpret, the crafty bastards.

That said, when next week rolls around, I expect a few "Ahh, so that's what it actually meant!" moments from the anime-only audience